Oh, No, He Didn't
by Vol lady
Summary: Yes, Nick did.
1. Chapter 1

Oh No. He Didn't.

Chapter 1

1907

"What's that?" Heath asked, leading his horse toward his older brother who had just come into the stable yard from a trip to town. Jarrod had taken the automobile in, but the roads, except for the one straight to Stockton, still left a lot to be desired. Everywhere else, and especially around the ranch, horses were still the norm.

"A telegram," Jarrod said.

"Telegram? From Nick, I guess?"

"Yeah," Jarrod said. "From Chicago."

Nick had gone east with his wife, Darcy, six weeks earlier, as a celebration of their thirtieth anniversary. Telegrams didn't arrive at the Barkley household very often anymore, not since telephone lines went in around California, but there were still no reliable lines over the mountains. Hence, the telegram.

The Barkley family was older now, but everyone was still quite healthy and working hard. Nick and Heath still ran the ranch together – Nick living with his wife at the mansion with Victoria, Heath with his wife Elinor and their youngest daughter in a home nearby on the property. Jarrod lived in town with his wife Debra although the two of them were staying with Victoria while Nick and Darcy were gone. Audra lived with her husband Carl on their ranch nearby.

Except for Heath's youngest daughter Cynthia and Audra's two sons who lived at home and worked the ranch with Carl, all the next generation of Barkleys were out on their own. Nick's daughter Victoria had married a businessman and moved to Sacramento while Nick's twin sons had married and formed their own ranch out of a piece of Barkley land Nick had given to them when they turned 21. Heath had another daughter and a son, both married and living in town. Jarrod's older son Tom had followed his father into the law and lived in San Francisco with his wife, while his younger son Stephen was back east studying medicine with his uncle Eugene, who had married and was raising four children of his own. Jarrod and Nick had grandchildren, too, but Heath, Audra and Eugene were still waiting for their first to arrive.

"What's the telegram say?" Heath asked.

Jarrod looked puzzled. "It says to expect Darcy home on the train on the 15th, but Nick's gonna be a few days later. It also says to ship five of the carrier pigeons to the train depot in Los Angeles by the 16th."

"The carrier pigeons?" Heath asked.

Nick had taken himself into the carrier pigeon business a few years earlier. A friend told him the army was becoming more interested in using them in wartime again, when telephone and tetegraph service were likely to be disrupted or where fighting might be where no service was available in the first place and wires couldn't be strung. So, Nick started raising them and training them. So far, he'd only managed to train them to fly back to the coop behind the barn at the Barkley ranch, but Nick always did have a thing for flight. Since he was a little kid, he'd wanted to take to the air. His family – wife included – figured pigeons were a satisfactory way of his safely doing that and let him have what they considered a hobby, because so far the business hadn't made a profit.

"I wonder why Los Angeles," Jarrod mused. He was just about to turn 64 years old now. The brain cells weren't firing as well as they used to, but he was still a sharp and curious man, and where Nick was concerned, when Nick came up with these little mysterious ways of his, Jarrod's thinking went into overdrive. What was his still "kid" brother up to now?

Heath had learned to be just as wary with Nick and his ideas. "With Nick, who knows? I'll be in town later today. I'll check and see how long it would take us to ship five birds in five little cages to Los Angeles."

"He doesn't say, but I'll bet he's traveling to Los Angeles and Darcy is traveling alone," Jarrod said. "Heck of a way to wind up a second honeymoon."

"Darcy's used to him by now. He's lucky he found a wife who just shrugs and lets him be himself."

"I wonder what he's up to and why – " Jarrod suddenly stopped, realizing something. If he was 64, Nick was just about – "Nick's turning 60 in a few weeks. With him and Darcy being gone, I forgot all about it."

"I didn't." Her voice was still as strong as ever, even if Victoria Barkley used a cane to get around these days. She was approaching from the house, slowly. She moved very slowly now but sometimes that had its advantages. Her hearing was still sharp and she could hear her sons' conversation long before she got there. "He's up to something, isn't he?"

Jarrod chuckled. "That would be Nick, but what it might have to do with carrier pigeons, I don't know."

"Well, he surely wants to fly them back here from Los Angeles," Heath, now 56, said. "Maybe he's gotten into a race with somebody or something."

"Whatever it is, turning 60 has probably had something to do with it," Victoria said.

Jarrod's wife Debra was approaching now, too. She kissed her husband, saying, "How's everything at the office?"

"Fine," Jarrod said. "We're just trying to figure out what Nick is getting into now."

"I heard something about the carrier pigeons."

"Nick has always had a thing about flying," Victoria said, looking up at the loft door of the stable. "Do you remember when you were boys and he tried to fly, Jarrod?"

"How can I forget it?" Jarrod asked. "That was the source of my bad back."

Everyone knew the story of six-year-old Nick's leap from the loft door, ten-year-old Jarrod's attempt to catch him, and the back injury that laid Jarrod up for a week. What Nick always seemed to remember about that story was that he had to wait on his older brother hand and foot while Jarrod was laid up.

But the other part of that story, the part that never wavered through all these years, was that Nick was fascinated with the thought of flying, of being in the air. You could see it every time he watched one of his birds fly, or whenever a hawk or an eagle went over. Nick wanted to be up there too.

"A carrier pigeon race would be just like him," Heath said. "There'd be betting involved."

"Then it would be his idea," Jarrod said, folding the telegram away and putting it into this pocket. "Well, I suppose we'll find out what this is all about when Darcy gets here, if not sooner."

"Well, one thing's for sure," Heath said. "It's bound to be interesting."

XXXXXXX

They arranged for Nick's pigeons to be shipped to Los Angeles and cared for at the depot until the 16th, but Nick had not called or telegraphed anything saying why he wanted them. On the 15th, when Darcy arrived home, Jarrod was there in town to pick her up at the station. It was late in the afternoon when the train arrived and he was finished at the office for the day, so he was the one who got to ask her first.

"What is Nick up to now?" he said as he took her bags from her and escorted her to the buggy in the street.

Darcy said, "Oh, I wish I could tell you but I promised Nick I wouldn't," the still beautiful woman said. Her red hair had long ago turned gray, but the wrinkles time and being married to Nick had given her only made her lovelier.

"Is it gonna cost him money?" Jarrod asked.

"Oh, my, yes," Darcy laughed. "Don't worry – it's all out of his personal pocket, not the ranch's, unless it works out the way he thinks it's going to."

"Do you think it's gonna work out the way he thinks it's going to?"

"No," she said honestly, still smiling. She loved the man despite his more expensive foibles.

"You're not even going to give me a hint as to what it is?" Jarrod asked as he put the bags in the back of the buggy.

"No," Darcy said again.

Jarrod helped her into the buggy. "How about telling me exactly when all this ought to become clear? He said he needed the pigeons by tomorrow."

"I think Nick plans his timetable to get him home by the 23rd," Darcy said.

"It's gonna take him a whole week to get from Los Angeles to Stockton?" Jarrod asked and climbed in beside his sister-in-law.

"If his plans don't work out, it could take him longer."

"What do you think the chances are his plans will work out?"

"About what they usually are when Nick gets a big idea."

Jarrod groaned. "Pretty slim, then. He's not gonna get hurt, is he?" Jarrod was more serious now.

"I don't think so," Darcy said, "but you know Nick. He'll take his chances on that no matter what I say about it."

Now Jarrod worried a little, but he slapped the reins and got the horse moving. "I'm trusting you wouldn't let him do it if you thought it was horribly dangerous."

"Let's just say I couldn't talk him out of it, and I felt better when he found some expert help on it."

"Well, that's something at least," Jarrod said. "I'd like to think there's hope he'll see his 60th birthday. We have a big surprise planned for him."

Darcy laughed again. "Not as big as the surprise he has planned for you."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Darcy stayed perfectly tight-lipped, despite Jarrod and Heath constantly needling her for information. Victoria, Debra and Elinor knew better than to try. They knew she wouldn't budge, and they weren't sure they really wanted to know what Nick was up to anyway.

The first word they got from Nick was on the 16th. He actually telephoned and told Darcy his plans and what she could say to the family, but he wouldn't speak directly to anyone else, despite Jarrod and Heath trying to get on the line.

"Sorry," Darcy said as she hung up.

"What did he say?" Heath asked.

"He said thanks for getting the pigeons there on time, and he thought he'd be ready to leave Los Angeles by the 21st," Darcy said. "That's set his timetable back. He's not planning to be here before the 28th."

"Any more delays and he's going to miss his own birthday party," Victoria said. She had drifted off to sleep on the living room sofa but woke up when the phone rang. They kept it in the foyer so it was easily reachable when it rang.

"He said if he did to go ahead without him," Darcy said.

"You're awfully calm about all this," Jarrod said.

Darcy shrugged. "Thirty years living with Nick teaches you to get calm."

"It didn't work for Jarrod," Victoria said, and then she smirked at her oldest, who was as gray-haired now as she was.

Heath's blond hair had only darkened to a light brown. If there was any gray in there, you couldn't see it. Maybe it was genetics and maybe it was his tendency to only get worked up over Nick when it was really worth it. He really had wanted to talk to him about some things going on at the ranch, but he let it go and relaxed when he found out what Nick had said on the phone. "Well, it doesn't sound like it's gonna be a pigeon race," Heath said.

"No," Jarrod agreed. "I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what it turns out to be."

Victoria caught Darcy smirking a bit. She was awfully glad it was Darcy Nick had chosen to marry, because that woman could take his occasional craziness and let it roll right off her back. Jarrod would still get worked up when Nick was on one of his escapades, as he always had, but Debra kept him relatively calm. Elinor was a lot like Heath, easy going unless provoked, and she did not often get provoked. Victoria knew her sons had chosen their wives well.

XXXXXXX

When the 21st rolled around, they got another phone call from Nick. Only Victoria and Darcy were there now – Jarrod and Debra had gone back to their home in town. Darcy took the call and spoke to Nick herself, but Victoria came to her and asked, "May I have a word with my son?"

Darcy knew better than to decline when Victoria called one of them "my son." To Nick, Darcy said, "Your mother wants to talk to you," and she handed Victoria the phone.

"Hello, Nick," Victoria said, loudly. She didn't use the phone enough to get used to the idea that you didn't have to raise your voice to be heard over so many miles.

"Hello, Mother, how are you?" Nick asked.

"I'm fine," Victoria said. And then she said, "What are you up to?"

Nick laughed. "Just a little surprise, Mother. Nothing to worry about."

"It sounds like more than a little surprise."

"Just don't you worry about it," Nick said. "I should be leaving tomorrow and be home in a few days and you'll love what I bring home with me."

"When should we expect the pigeons?"

Nick laughed. "Well, if all goes well, they'll all be arriving when I do. If I have to send a message when I'm away from a telephone or a telegraph, I'll send one of the pigeons. Just don't worry, Mother. You're gonna love this."

"Remember, you're not 25 anymore, Nicholas."

"Sometimes I still feel like I am, Mother, and it's wonderful."

They ended the call, and Darcy hung up the phone. She didn't like how worried Victoria still looked, even after hearing Nick's voice. "Don't worry, Mother," she said. "Remember, I told you, Nick had some expert help on this project of his."

"You know a mother still worries," Victoria said. "You raised two more just like him, remember?"

Darcy said, "And they're alive and well and happy."

XXXXXXXX

It turned out to be the 22nd of the month when Nick actually left Los Angeles, giving his wife a quick telephone call before he began to head north. To Victoria, Darcy seemed a little bit more worried after that phone call, as if the thought of Nick now being on the road was of more concern than him being in Los Angeles. "Do you want to talk about it?" Victoria asked after Darcy put the phone back on the hook.

"No," Darcy said, joining her mother-in-law in the living room. "You know how it is. You get a little uneasy when they're traveling."

"Did he say how long he thought it would take him to get home?"

"He said to give it ten days at least."

"Ten?" Victoria cried. "That's more than 'a few' he told me it would be."

She sighed. "Knowing Nick, it'll take more than ten days. He can't stay on the road without a beer that long."

"Well, he may be nearly 60 but he can still take care of himself. He's starting to get very close to not being here for his birthday, though."

Darcy shrugged. "We'll have it without him."

XXXXXXX

The days were really crawling by. On the fifth day, one of the carrier pigeons came in. The message in the canister on its leg said _Delayed at least one day_. _Mechanical._

"Mechanical?" Jarrod said when he saw the message. He and Debra had arrived for dinner, and he found the little note on the table in the foyer. He looked up at Darcy. "Is he driving an automobile up here?"

Darcy just shrugged.

Jarrod said, "Why is he driving an automobile up here? We have a dealer in Stockton now."

"Nick's just having a little adventure of his own," Darcy said.

Debra wondered why Nick would be having an adventure of his own after apparently ditching his wife to make her own way home from their second honeymoon. She didn't say anything to Darcy or Victoria, but she did say something to Jarrod as they lay in bed together that night.

"Do you think they're all right?" she asked. "I mean – who leaves a woman to get home from their second honeymoon alone?"

Jarrod said, "Darcy doesn't seem to be all that concerned about him."

"That just makes me worry more," Debra said.

Jarrod rolled onto his side and kissed his wife. "You know how they are together. Nick gets an idea in his head, Darcy cautions him and then she walks away from it. That's the best way to handle Nick. I used to get crazy about him and his little adventures – "

"Used to?"

"All right, sometimes I still do. But I'll talk to Nick when he gets home, all right? I'll find out how things are. If anything really is wrong, he'll tell me."

"Thanks. I'd just as soon not bring it up with Darcy, especially with Nick not here yet. I wonder what's taking him so long to get home."

"I think he bought an automobile and he's driving it up here. The roads aren't great yet, you know. It's not gonna be an easy trip."

"I guess that could be it."

"Maybe it's an anniversary present for Darcy, a kind of automobile he couldn't get around here."

Debra sighed. "Maybe you're right. But if he's not careful, he's going to miss his own birthday party."

Jarrod counted the days in his head. "He can still get here on time. Why don't you and I just quit worrying?" He kissed her.

She kissed him back and smiled. "You want to do something else?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Whatever it was, Darcy still left the family wondering. She had promised Nick she'd keep quiet about it, and she was going to keep doing that. There were no more telephone calls, but another carrier pigeon flew in on the eighth day since Nick left Los Angeles. It carried the same message. _Delayed at least one day. Mechanical._

"This vehicle better be worth it," Jarrod said when he found out about the new delay.

Darcy gave herself and Nick away, just a little bit, when she smiled and said, "I think it will be."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It was Nick's birthday, number 60. Early in the afternoon, people started to gather at the Barkley ranch for his big surprise birthday party. As many of his friends and relatives who could come were there. Music began to play and the food began to be devoured and laughter was rolling all around.

And Nick wasn't there.

"I'm worried," Jarrod said almost as soon as he and Debra got to the ranch. "Darcy, have you heard from him at all lately?"

"The day before yesterday we got a message by carrier pigeon," Darcy said. "He said he'd be here by sunset yesterday, but I haven't heard anything since."

"And you're not worried?" Heath said.

Darcy sighed. "I am, a little bit. But he said his schedule could change at any moment."

"Do you know _exactly_ what he's up to?" Jarrod asked.

"I do," Darcy said, "but he swore me to secrecy."

Jarrod and Heath looked at each other. Darcy wasn't fooling them. Yes, she knew what Nick was up to, but yes, she was more worried than she was letting on. Heath finally said, "If he isn't here or we don't get a telephone call or a pigeon by three at the latest, I'm going after him."

"I'll go with you," Jarrod said.

They tried to go on with the party, tried to keep the guests relaxed and answer the "Where's Nick?" question with no more than "He's coming." They weren't fooling their mother, though, and their sister and all their spouses were looking uncomfortable too. Nick's twin sons asked their mother flatly what was going on. She just told them, "Don't worry yet. You know how your father can be when he gets into something."

"What's he gotten into?" son Jarrod asked.

"He wants it to be a surprise," their mother told them.

Son Heath looked just as wary as his twin. "Uncle Jarrod and Uncle Heath are talking about going to look for him if he's not here soon. I think we need to go too."

Darcy was beginning to think that was a good idea. Nick hadn't planned on being away on his birthday, but what he was doing was subject to a lot of delays, and it was looking like there had been another one. And even if she would never let on to anyone that she thought what he was doing was dangerous, she had told him that. But in typical Nick fashion, he just kissed her and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

After thirty years of marriage, Darcy had gotten used to just letting Nick do what he wanted as long as it wasn't completely foolhardy, and this time, at least, he did have expert help, she had to admit. But when her sons said they wanted to go look for him with their uncles, she nodded and said, "All right."

Two o'clock turned into two-thirty. Jarrod and Heath – both Jarrods and both Heaths – lost their smiles, and even Darcy was beginning to look off into the distance, toward the south, where Nick would be coming from. The problem was, he still wasn't coming. When a quarter to three rolled around, the elder Heath said, "Maybe we oughta saddle up."

The elder Jarrod looked toward his mother and Darcy, who were sitting at a table about 30 feet away, not looking happy. "I'd hate to think that something happened to him on his birthday. Maybe we ought to try to get Darcy to tell us what's really going on."

"Yeah," Heath agreed, then looked at his sons. "Why don't you two get us some horses saddled?"

Heath's sons headed for the stable while he and Jarrod headed for the table where Victoria and Darcy sat. The two women looked up at them. They looked worried.

Jarrod sat down beside Darcy. "Darcy, we're thinking we ought to head out and look for Nick. Do you have any idea where he might have been when he sent the pigeon in the other day?"

"No," Darcy said. "I have a rough idea he might have been around Salida but maybe he was even as far as Lathrop and frankly, I'm not even sure that was the route he was taking."

"Darcy, what exactly is he doing?" Heath asked. "We gotta know if we're gonna know where to look."

Darcy opened her mouth to answer the question, but at that moment, a wagon rolling up to the yard got her attention – and she breathed so much easier it was noticeable to everyone around her. She hurried over to it to greet the man driving the wagon. She knew who he was, but seeing her go to him so readily made the rest of the family curious and anxious. They did not know who he was.

The man got down from the wagon and let the ranch hand take it to park it. There were three small empty bird cages in the back of the wagon and two bird cages with birds. There were also a lot of tools and crates with items you couldn't see. As the ranch hand took the wagon away and a lot of Barkleys arrived to greet the newcomer, they heard Darcy say, "Where's Nick? Is he with you?"

The man smiled. "He's not far behind me. Sorry about all the delays but it turned out we needed that extra engine and had to take a longer repair stop yesterday than we planned."

Jarrod reached a hand to the newcomer. "Hello, I'm Jarrod Barkley, Nick's brother. This is my brother Heath, Nick's sons Jarrod and Heath, our sister, her husband, our mother, my wife back there and brother Heath's wife – and I'm afraid I have to ask. Who are you and how do you know Nick?"

The man shook Jarrod's hand and said, "Wilbur Wright. Glad to know you."

Every face registered the shock. Everyone knew that name. This man was famous, even more famous than the president. And as his name settled in, another realization settled in bit by bit among the Barkleys. Jarrod was the first to breathe, "Oh, no."

Wilbur Wright chuckled.

"Oh, no," Jarrod repeated again. "He didn't."

Wilbur Wright kept smiling and nodded. "He did."

Heath understood just as Jarrod did. "Where is he?" he asked.

Wilbur Wright started looking around the skies toward the south, then started looking around the terrain. His gaze settled on a flat area in back of the main house. It was a big space that ran down to the small river nearby. They often had it in wheat or rye, but this year, it was fallow. Wright pointed. "Let's get over there. Nick ought to be coming in just about – ah, here he comes."

Wright pointed. Everyone looked. When the party goers saw the Barkley's looking and Wright pointing, they all stopped what they were doing and looked. Even the musicians stopped playing and looked. Heath's sons came out of the stable when the music stopped. And then they all heard it, too, just as they saw it coming, getting larger and larger as it came, the engine getting louder.

This time, it was Victoria who said, "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," Jarrod said with a sigh.

Wright headed to the flat area behind the house, and everyone followed. Jarrod helped Victoria along, and the two of them and Heath and Darcy stayed with Wright as he came into the grassy area, waving his arms at the thing approaching.

The flying machine, coming down out of the sky like a bird.

Darcy quickly said, "He spent a good portion of our second honeymoon taking flying lessons." And she shrugged, as if what did anyone expect?

The flying machine landed a little tilted, but it straightened out and in no time it slowed to a stop. The engine noise disappeared. A huge cheer went up from the crowd. Nick Barkley's family approached the thing as Nick was climbing awkwardly out of it and putting his feet on the ground. He was wearing a leather helmet and goggles that he took off, and then he took off his gloves. He wore a white canvas coat and a huge smile.

"I did it!" he boomed, spreading his arms in celebration, wanting everyone to hear. "I CAN FLY!"

While everyone applauded, his family just burst into laughter, Jarrod most of all, recalling that moment 54 years ago when Nick took that leap out of the loft door and he had tried to catch him. He remembered another flying leap Nick took into a pond and announced that someday he might actually fly. And now he'd done it. Nick really did fly.

Jarrod was the first to reach a hand to him. "Nick, you are nothing if not persistent," he said, shook his hand and slapped him on the back as the rest of the family joined him. "How did you get that thing to Los Angeles?"

Nick ate up the adoration. "Shipped it from Chicago. We had to put the wings on when we got it out here." He kissed Darcy and said, "I hope you didn't worry too much."

"No more than usual," she said.

"Have you _bought_ this thing?" Victoria asked.

"I have," Nick announced. "We're gonna use it to herd cattle."

"Oh, no, we're not," Heath said quickly. "You'll scare them into a stampede with this."

"We'll get them used to it," Nick said. He found Wilbur Wright and shook his hand. "Did you meet everybody?"

Wright nodded.

Nick slapped him on the back. "I met this man and his brother back east and I knew it was destiny. I can't wait to tell you what it was like being up there – looking down at the earth right under you. It's nothing like looking at it from a distance from a mountain. It takes on a whole new look – "

Nick gushed. He and Wright each took one end of the lower wing of the biplane, everyone followed along as they took the machine to a more secure and covered spot behind the stable, Nick continuing to chatter away all the while. They posted a guard there to keep an eye on the thing, then they took Nick to his party, where he ate and drank and danced and gushed. Everyone had a marvelous time.

As the sun went down, Jarrod sat down with his mother and Wright at a table off the dancing area. He had been dancing with his wife and she was now dancing with Nick's son Jarrod. The elder Jarrod was pooped. As Jarrod looked at Wright, he said, "You know, Nick has been trying to fly since he was six years old. I'm glad you helped him actually do it."

"He told me," Wright said. "I've never had a more excited pupil."

"You weren't worried about him flying here all the way from Los Angeles?"

"A little maybe, but I was with him on the ground, and his only problems were mechanical. He even knew how to get it down when the engine threatened to cut off. He was a good student."

Jarrod still shook his head. "He did have us worried a bit when he kept getting delayed. Nick has always had a tendency to get into trouble."

"Not this time," Victoria said. And she squeezed Wright's hand. "Not with the expert keeping him out of it."

"Well, we're grateful," Jarrod said, "and very proud to meet you. We don't get too many people around here as famous as you are."

"I might be famous, but I'm a bicycle repairman at heart," Wright said. "And like Nick, I always wanted to fly. My first time was a LOT shorter than from Los Angeles to Stockton, but I was every bit as thrilled as Nick is now."

They all looked Nick's way. He was dancing with Heath's daughter Cynthia now, while Heath danced with Elinor. Nick was still chattering away and grinning ear to ear.

"Yeah," Jarrod said. "You made the biggest birthday dream he ever had come true."

"Thank you," Victoria said, sincerely.

"Would you like a ride in it tomorrow?" Wright asked.

"Not on your life," Victoria said, and everyone laughed.

Suddenly Nick came over and took Victoria by the hand. "How about a little victory spin with your aviator son, Mother?"

Victoria got up, sighing, laughing. "As long as you agree to let me keep my feet on the ground, Nick. Flying is your dream, and you're welcome to it."

Heath and Elinor came over to the table as Nick waltzed his mother back onto the dance floor. Heath was laughing. "Do you think Nick's ever gonna come back down to earth?'

"Nope," Jarrod said right away, smiling as he watched his mother and brother dance. "He's got his head in the clouds for real now, exactly where it's always been. And probably where it's always belonged."

The End


End file.
